Follow me into the jungle
by SamBelle
Summary: The darkness was everywhere. No matter how hard she tried Kate could see nothing else. She had no idea where she was or what happened.
1. Chapter 1

This fic happens somewhere between season1 episode 22 (after John shows Jack the hatch) and episode 23 (when Rousseau comes to the beach to warn them about the others). I have a mildly severe obsession with Evangeline Lilly and managed to watch the first three seasons of Lost in four days (and then slept 14 hours). Also I do not own this fine show otherwise I would not have been in trouble for watching the show instead of studying.

The darkness was everywhere. No matter how hard she tried Kate could see nothing else. She had no idea where she was or what happened. She remembers sitting on the beach talking to Claire when Sayid called her. It sounded urgent. She remembers talking to him before following him into the jungle. Next thing she remembers was running through the jungle. Alone. And then, nothing. Nothing except a throbbing pain that seemed to pierce through her entire being, with the source unknown. She slowly sat up and felt the pain subsiding to the original points of impact: her head, right shoulder, ribs, stomach and left ankle. What the hell happened to her? She tried to stand but the a wave of dizziness and nausea washed over her. Suddenly she felt very tired. She tried to the best of her abilities to stay awake but in the end gave in to the sleep.

The next morning Kate was woken by the sun shining on her freckled face. Once again she sat up and tried to recall what happened. After a while she gave up and started examining her injuries. Her head still hurt but there was nothing she could do about the big bump on her forehead. Her ankle was sprained and her shoulder and ribs bruised, which meant getting back to the camp was going to take a while. The worrisome part was her abdomen. Most of the skin was scraped and was covered in dried blood, and she had a piece of bark sticking out of her lower abdomen. It was about four inches long running down from her belly button. It stuck out only two inches, was quite thick and had blood oozing out around the edges. Removing her shirt from around it hurt like hell and she nearly passed out from the pain. She used the sleeve of her jacket to wrap her ankle and the rest of it to make a sling. Slowly she started making her way back to the beach, closely following the footsteps from the day before. An hour later she came to a stream and drank the clear water. Another four hours later she limped onto the beach a hundred yards from the camp. She was dehydrated and starving and gave only a few steps before she collapsed. Lucky for her she was walking on a slope and fell sideways instead of forwards.

Hurley saw someone in the distance while helping Jin clean the fish. Squinting his eyes he realized that it was Kate. "Guys! Hey guys, Kate needs help!" he yelled as Kate fell to the ground. Sawyer and Jin stormed to her and gently carried her unconscious body to the 'kitchen', slowly placing her on the table. "Get Jack, now!" Sawyer ordered and Sun ran down the path leading to the caves. Jin went to get some water while Sawyer tried to wake her and remove the sling. Three minutes later Jack and Sun emerged from jungle. Jack took pulse while Sawyer helped her drink. Then Jack started going over her injuries. He softly ran his hands over her ribs and stomach, checking for any sign of internal damage. When he pressed on her stomach she moaned in pain, her head turning as she came to. Her eyes fluttered open and she would've jolted upright if Sawyer hadn't grabbed her shoulders. "Easy. Easy Kate, you don't want to make it worse" he whispered. "The belly is tender but soft" Jack stated. "Well what the hell does that mean?" Sawyer asked impatiently. "It means she's not bleeding internally" Sun answered. Jack moved to Kate's head and used a torch to check her pupils. "Kate, are your ears ringing? Do you feel dizzy or nauseas? Any vomiting?" he asked. She nodded. "How many times did you vomit?" She held up four fingers. "Can you tell me what happened? " "I don't remember. .." she mumbled. She was shaking and tears rolled down her cheeks. She, Kate Austen, was scared. She was stranded on an island after a plane crash and now she had a piece of tree sticking out if her with no idea how it got there. Jack sent Sun back to get some medical supplies while Sawyer chased the people away. Everyone had to move back, everyone but Bernard. "Bernard, I have a mild anaesthetic. It will only put her down for half an hour. I'm going to need a second pair of hands" Jack told him. "Can I count on you?" Bernard nodded. Sun came running down with a bag filled with everything Jack asked for. Thirty seconds later a syringe was slowly emptied into Kate's arm and she drifted off. Jack and Bernard were working on the wound in her belly.

Sawyer walked over to the fire where everyone did the best the could to prepare a meal. "Did anyone see where she went yesterday?" he asked them. No one said anything and a few shook their heads. "How about who she went with?" "I saw her talking to Sayid late yesterday morning" Claire said. "He seemed worried about something. He said that you were out hunting and Jack was with John to go check something out. After that he and Kate filled their bottles and took off." "Has anyone seen Sayid since yesterday?" Hurley asked, but everyone just shook their heads again.

That is all I have for today/night. Hope you guys like it and please comment.


	2. Chapter 2

_The previous day:_

 _Sayid was anxious. Was Rousseau telling the truth? And what could John and Jack possibly be looking at in the middle of the stinking jungle? Are they at the hatch again? When he approached the beach he asked Rose if she had seen Sawyer._ _"Not since early this morning, he went out hunting with Scott, or was it Steve?" she answered. "Steve, Scott's dead. Thank you." he said before running closer to the camp. There he found Kate talking to Claire, who was holding her new born son. "Kate!" he called. She came over. "What's wrong?" she asked. It's Rousseau, she says she saw a pack of polar bears walking around, killing boar less than two miles from here. She says there are at least eight of them." he panted. "Does Jack know?" Kate asked. "No" he sighed "He and John are somewhere in the jungle and Sawyer is out hunting. Besides, Sawyer will kill anything that moves and Jack will sacrifice himself to save the rest. You might actually do something useful. You went out hunting a lot, yes?" "Yeah, we might be able to lure them away if we can kill an animal and leave a trail." she said._

Thirty minutes after Jack injected Kate, he and Bernard went into the ocean to wash the blood off their hands and out of their clothes. As they walked out Charlie, Sawyer and Claire awaited them. "How is she?" Claire asked. "She's stable. If she makes it through the night she's out of the woods. She got lucky, the bark was impaled very deep and missed any major organs or blood vessels. It nearly tore though her bladder. She did lose a lot of blood though." Jack answered. "Any idea what happened to her?" "All we could find out is that she and a quite worried Sayid went into the jungle around late morning yesterday" Charlie said. "And Sayid hasn't been seen since." Jack sighed. Sun came running towards them. "She's awake." Kate looked like she got hit by a bus that was being pushed by a train. The bump on her forehead was huge and a deep blueish-purple colour (the colour your younger siblings lips turn when you dunk them in freezing water for a minute). She smiled at them. "Hey Xena Warrior Princess. Did you and Tarzan have fun?" Sawyer mocked. She wrinkled her nose and rolled her eyes in response. "I don't remember much but I'm going to go with probably not. I have a bump the size of a dragon egg on my forehead." she answered. "So you still don't know what happened?" Sun asked. Kate shook her head and her pale face turned grave. "You haven't found him yet, have you?" she asked.

 _They filled their bottles, borrowed two knives from John's collection and ran into the jungle. After they were just over two miles away Kate started tracking their paw prints through the mud. A few miles further they killed a very unfortunate rabbit family and tried to run ahead and make a trail. They started cutting up a rabbit, leaving the blood to drip behind them. They walked several hours before they heard heavy footsteps. The ground was shaking and bushes were rustling. Less than ten yards away a relatively small polar bear emerge from a giant thorn bush. Kate froze but Sayid reached for his knife. The bear stopped and looked at them, deeply inhaling to smell them. It could not have been a pleasant scent, for they were sweaty and covered in mud, dried blood and heaven knows what else. "Sayid, put the knife away and back away slowly." Kate said while taking a step backwards. Instead of moving away Sayid charged the bear. That was a stupid move. Just before the knife could touch the bear it's father came running out of the trees. Sayid and Kate both started running, dodging trees as they go. Sayid was faster and was soon out of sight. Kate was about to make a turn when she felt a hairy paw touching her back. It pushed her forward and she scraped against a tree, a deep pain starting in her stomach. The second she touched the ground she got up and ran further. She looked back at the bears when the ground disappeared beneath her feet and she rolled down a steep slope before everything went black._

"What can you remember?" Jack asked, sitting down next to Kate. She groaned as she tried to sit up right. Kate was move from the table to her tent and was covered in a thin blanket so that she didn't have to wear a shirt, making it easier for Jack to check on her. "I remember Sayid called me over to tell me something. He was worried and I think he said something about Rousseau and bears. Then we went into the jungle. Next thing I remember was waking up in the dark not knowing where I am" she told them. "After that I fell asleep, woke up and came here." "How far do you think you walked?" Sawyer asked. "About 8 miles, mostly heading east."

An hour later Sawyer, Steve, Charlie and John set off to go look for Sayid. Jack and sun stayed behind to look after Kate. They found some aloe to help clean the cuts on her stomach. Shortly after the search party left she ate an apple and fell asleep. She woke occasionally to drink, eat, or her personal favourite: pee. It was a torturous routine to get her standing and help her behind a bush so she could relieve herself. Bending over and breathing were two of her least favourite actions, and for this she had to do both. At dusk the search party returned helping a limping Sayid to the beach.


	3. Chapter 3

Sayid was in much better shape than Kate was. He had the luck of getting himself caught in one of Rousseau's traps. The party found him dangling in a net hanging from a tree. He twisted his knee while running and his arms had a bit of rope burn, other than that he was fine. After his knee was wrapped and his arms were covered in aloe he filled in the blanks.

Kate was allowed to walk again a few days later. Her stomach still hurt and her ribs bruised but she was fine. The concussion also cleared up. Sawyer liked spending most of his day describing her forehead or making up nicknames for her. Nine eternities later her stomach was back to normal, except for the scar beneath her belly button. It took a while but she finally convinced Jack that she could climb trees and pick fruit again. Seven days later she fell from the tree killing a baby deer and breaking her collar bone.

The end.

Bambi, I apologise DEERLY for killing you. I also apologise for this pathetically short chapter that was even shorter than my first attempt but I ran out of ideas. (also, for those who read Namarie Tauriel: attampt- trying but failing to use a tampon. I misspelled it on "purpose").


End file.
